(Un-)Living NecroTacticum: Necros vs the world of Blood Bowl

[swilhelm73]

Turns out, it's not that easy (for me) to break things down into simple rules to follow when distributing my guys on the pitch. It always amazes me how good coaches seem to anticipate upcoming moves.

The key to that, IMO, is repetition.

I've been playing BB for...20 years? And I've logged thousands of games in the Cyanide client which has the latest version of BB. So I usually have a strategy before the match, and enough familiarity with what I am likely to see on the pitch to know how to tactically implement my strategy.

Also, watch your opponent during his turn and start thinking about how you are going to counter it.

If you are interested and have the Cyanide client you can watch my replays as well as they are accessible from an app called "Blood Bowl Manager". I played 6 seasons of Necro in our "Premier" division and it was a blast.

[Digger Goreman]

Fumbbl is what it is and no slight was given... Just that people are playing all the time and having fun is a feather in the programmers caps and makes having it on the internet a boon to the community.... It just didn't provide help in my quest for eliminating all but luck in this game... a neutral fact though I suppose there are those who might would take offense, though they are like a gobbo bomber with a short fuse, no?

Bien sur, I will continue to spectate... why not, eh?

[sann0638]

Oh great! I'll definitely look into this, thanks for the heads-up. Would that be something for a relatively unexperienced coach though? I don't mind the frustration of losing but are there any qualifiers necessary?

No qualifiers, and no harm in having a go! Digger could take part too.

[Digger Goreman]

Returning to the more germaine topic of screening the ball carrier:

The trick is in providing spaced and interlocking tackle zones so that a bigger foe cannot even blitz next to the ball carrier and the stunties must roll numerous dodges and an incredibly improbable uphill attack to pry the ball loose.... Not an easy task with Mv4, Ag3-, and no stunty.... Necros tread the thin line of the ying and yang while trying to bring opposite elements into a complimentary relationship.... So I wager you will find it necessary to stick the poor zeds into disadvantageous tar-baby duty and trust in Av8 (plus enough skulls and double-downs) to confound the sauri while your more mobile elements stomp skinks and score....

Since you are on fumbbl most, watch gobbos play.... They are among the best screeners in the game....

Best of all to you, squirrel fanatic, and hopes that his skinks all die in the first half!

[squirrelfanatic]

Bugger. Started to play my game against the Lizzies today only to get a disconnection (it's a Cyanide client league) shortly thereafter. Automatic 2-0 loss, no chance to replay the game due toan automated validation process. All the preparation for naught, I didn't even get any SPPs out of this.

At least I can try to salvage some insight from this mess. Even though the game only lasted ~3 turns, I managed to make some big mistakes. I had to receive in the first half and set up my guys as follows:

Clipboard01.jpg

I figured it would be a good idea to tie down as many Sauri as possible right away and not shortly thereafter the pitch looked like this (see next post).

[squirrelfanatic]

Clipboard02.jpg

Both the Ghoul (ballcarrier at that point) and the Wolf close to the sideline had Block, both were knocked down regardless. Obvious mistake: I left holes in my initial setup and didn't pin down the opposition enough. The ball was popped loose and a defensive TD almost unavoidable. In turn 3 or 4 of my drive.

P.S.: His Kroxigor went out with the first Blitz of my MB/Block Wolf.

[Digger Goreman]

A little hard to figure out from the pictures, but your ball carrier wound up away from all support.... Given your starting front line, and what sounds like a very successful blocking campaign against the front line, I would have sought to park the ball carrier behind the two golems with the guards initially on the back corners... zombies wide of the center-back of the cage.... Give him only a blitz on inconsequential zeds or non-moving golems....

Don't know where the ball is in the last diagram but, provided no one is stunned, block/blitz with the ghoul straight ahead, leaving him next to the second skink, and recover the ball with the wolf.... If the ghoul was standing, the werewolf blitz against the loose skink should solve the problem.... His sauri are relatively inconsequential....

If, however, the second pic is the beginning of his turn, then it is tougher to say....

[sann0638]

Relevant to this thread - I've just started necro in my tabletop league, and will be live-streaming most of my games. Started yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_LcpSOcEr4

I went for 2 wolves, 1 FG, 2 wights, 6 zombie, 3 RR starting roster (Matt Slater's "all regen" line-up) and won 3-0 against a Norse team that started with all the positionals and only 1 RR. One wolf scored all 3, then happily rolled +ag in his skillup, and a zombie got the MVP and rolled a double, so I took guard. No injuries for me, and managed to kill one of his guys so earned myself a zombie. Now up to 80k, so confident of the 2nd golem after the next game - which is Tuesday night at 1930 GMT, YouTube fans! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQcVq5U6xEI

Team here: http://www.xenolith.me.uk/cakebowl/inde ... obj_id=117

[squirrelfanatic]

Hey Digger, the diagrams aren't all that helpful I guess, I'm still looking for a good replacement for BBplaycreator. The tool I used is called BBPusher and just now I realised that it does provide a token for the ball... The second diagram is almost the end of my opponent's turn, as the disconnect happened when he moved one of his Skinks next to the ball, which would be located in square g-c (next to my knocked-down but not stunned Wolf).

The reason I went for a route close to a sideline was that the Lizards used their initial 2 turns (not shown here) to flood my half with their Skinks in a way that created a screen between my frontline and the Ghoul+Wolf pair in my backfield. Looking back at it now, I maybe shouldn't have gone bonkers with feeding assists to the LOS, as this left me with no screen/roadblocks to prevent this particular (and actually pretty common) Lizardmen strategy. I guess I was too anxious to win the blocking war. At the same time, I trusted a bit too much in the power of Blodge, as it took my opponent exactly one 2D block to roll the needed Pow to get the ball loose.

Thanks for the advice, I'll try to finally get started with FUMBBLing soon, so hopefully I'll be able to make use of those insights after all. I'll surely won't get better at the game by moaning about disconnects on a forum.

@sann: That's awesome! I'll watch the game tonight when I get home from work. Thanks for that, too. By the way, I listened to the (brief) BB feature on Radio 2 the other night. You're doing a great job with all the promotional stuff.

[swilhelm73]

I figured it would be a good idea to tie down as many Sauri as possible right away and not shortly thereafter the pitch looked like this (see next post).

I'm not sure I would agree with intentionally tagging the Sauruses right away.

It does take away the dynamic defense that lizards can manage with their relatively high MV on their saurses...but at the cost of positioning for you.

This goes along with my other thread about screening vs marking. Make your opponent initiate contact with you as opposed to the other way around can put you in a much better position...

[squirrelfanatic]

Yep, you're right, your comment from the other thread was still present in my head when I made those moves. My intention was to bind the Sauri for only a couple of turns to get my ballcarrier to safety. That whole idea backfired though, as I got block-happy and didn't have enough players free to screen/pin the remaining opposition. Still getting annoyed just thinking about that.

[sann0638]

Game available to view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQcVq5U6xEI

Lowlight was my +Ag wolf getting a 57 injury... yep, -Ag. Sad times.

[squirrelfanatic]

I watched parts of the game, very entertaining indeed and a nice way for non-TT gamers to get an idea of what matches in meat-space are like.

It looked like you guys had a lot of fun. Sadly, Youtube wouldn't let me comment in chat without confirming my identity via phone, so I didn't.

[sann0638]

Cool. That's interesting - next time, I am on Twitter so you could use that option?

[squirrelfanatic]

Yeah sure, that would be an option. I wasn't aware Twitter's part of the setup.

Question on the side: Did you build those boards/stadiums yourself? It looked as if there was at least some customisation going on.